Weekend Box Office: Ice Age Drifts to Easy Win, Spider-Man Slings It in Second

By Chris Kavan - 07/15/12 at 11:56 PM CT

Once again, it was the family audience that determined who took the box office crown. And once again, it was a win for a venerable animated series.

Ice Age: Continental Drift was the winner with a $46 million opening. And while it may not be as impressive as Brave ($66.3 million) or Madagascar 3 ($60.3 million), for the fourth film in a series, it has to be seen as a good sign audiences were willing to stick with these characters for another round. It was on par with the first Ice Age ($46.3 million) though it couldn't match the success of Ice Age: The Meltdown ($68 million).

A good sign that we'll probably see another Ice Age before too long - audience were split evenly both between male/female and those over and under 25 years of age. It also earned an A- across the board (and A for those 18 and under), which mean it should continue to do well in the coming weeks. The only sore spot was the 3D screens accounted for only 35% of the gross, a pretty low number for an animated film. Still, with no other major family movies until Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days in August, Continental Drift should enjoy a decent run.

The Amazing Spider-Man had to settle for second behind the animated assault. Dropping a respectable 44%, the film took in $35 million and, should those numbers hold, it will wind up just over $200 million for the weekend. While the audience hold was good, the film still took in much less than the previous Spider-Man films in their second weekends (the lowest was Spider-Man 2, which still took in $45.1 million in its second weekend). Still, it won't have any trouble making it to its $230 million cost (even with The Dark Knight Rises coming up), and it continues to do robust foreign business as well.

Ted also slipped one spot to third, taking in $22.1 million, down just over 31%. Seth MacFarlane directorial debut now stands at nearly $159 million and, on just a $50 million budget, probably means he'll have a decent career outside of Family Guy.

Pixar's Brave, despite competition from Ice Age, still held on to fourth place with $10.7 million. Down 45.5%, Brave was just shy of $200 million with a $195.6 million and should pass that mark sometime before next weekend. It should also be able to pass Madagascar 3's total (currently at $203.7 million) as well - if might not be next week, but certainly the following.

Rounding out the top five, Magic Mike kept its fifth place spot, down 42% with a $9 million total. With Channing Tatum proclaiming a sequel is pretty much a given, the male-stripper fest has brought in $91.8 million so far, and it should manage to edge past the $100 million total before it is done.

Oliver Stone's violent Savages dropped out of the top five in its second week, but it's 45.5% drop is actually a pretty good hold for a movie that flaunts its R rating. The film took in an additional $8.7 million and now stands at $31.4 million. It may not make up for John Carter or Battleship, but at least Taylor Kitsch had somewhat of a recovery with this film - at least it should come pretty close to making back its $45 million budget - something that can't be said for his higher-profile disappointments.

Next week all eyes with be on The Dark Knight Rises and whether the film can surpass the superhero bar set by The Avengers. It's a film I've been anticipating all year and I'll be interested to see how it turns out.